UFC 300 witnessed the masterclass between Alex Pereira and Jamahal Hill as the main event. Pereira successfully defended his light heavyweight belt against the former champion as ‘Poatan’ knocked out ‘Sweet Dreams’ in the very first round by a left hook to assert his dominance in the division and in the entire promotion.

Interestingly, after knocking out Hill, ‘Poatan’ stood over ‘Sweet Dream’s unconscious body to do the Khaby Lame celebration. In general, Pereira maintains his stoic demeanor but during the Hill fight, he showcased his winning celebration for the very first time. However, why did he do this? Does Israel Adesanya have something to do with it? Let us find out.

The reason behind Alex Pereira’s Khaby Lame celebration

The inception of Alex Pereira in the UFC shook the throne of many fighters and Israel Adesanya is one of them. Known as the arch-rival of ‘Stylebender’, Pereira has done everything to assert that he is better than him. Interestingly, the Tik-Tok fame met Adesanya a few days ago and they made the same gesture together. Many thought, Pereira did it just to mock Adesanya but the reality is completely different.

Pereira stated that he felt disrespected during the UFC 300 pre-fight press conference. That was when he decided he would knock him out of the park. Well, seems like Pereira is telling the truth this time. During a certain episode of ‘Pound4Pound’, Henry Cejudo inquired from Kamaru Usman about Pereira’s celebration and Usman stated the exact same thing. “What’s his name, Khaby or whatever his name is? That guy who does the video, basically saying ‘There it is, just like that, it’s that easy.’ I think it was because he felt disrespected with what Jamahal Hill was saying towards the press conference,” said Kamaru Usman.

He further added, “Because it was cordial, they were friendly, and everything was good. And then, at the press conference, rightfully so as you should, Jamaal Hill started to sell the fight. He was gung ho on ‘Sleeping Jamaal Hill,’ and once he did it, he was like ‘voila, there you go.'”

Alex Pereira himself asserted that he wanted a full five-round fight with Hill but decided to bury him in the Octagon once he started disrespecting him. Nonetheless, after the fight, Pereira demanded a heavyweight fight from Dana White, which seems to have gotten a response from the interim heavyweight champion.

Tom Aspinall and Pereira’s back and forth on

After Pereira demanded the heavyweight match as soon as possible, the interim heavyweight champ posted a cryptic image of him staring at Pereira from the crowd. The duo has been talking in cryptics for quite some fight about their fight, and this might be their chance for a clash. When asked about Aspinall’s post, Pereira asserted that he was unbothered by it.

“I don’t know man, only he can respond to that. When I said I want to fight at heavyweight, I’m not going to give names right here. I told them I want to fight at heavyweight, so whoever they choose,” said Alex Pereira to the reporters. 

Moving up in the division is no joke when it comes to the heavyweight division. The entire division is stacked with potential demons and fighting them would not be easy and Dana White knows it. While having a conversation with the media, White asserted, “When you think about him moving up to heavyweight – you’ve got (Jon) Jones, you’ve got Aspinall and the list goes on and on in that heavyweight division,” White might want Pereira to stay at light heavyweight division but for how long? State your thoughts in the comments below.